It’s not too often those of us who have a minimally processed foods diet find coupons worth our while in the Sunday paper or the fliers that show up in our mailbox every day. But I have found a few sites with deals for foods and products I’m more likely to purchase, which include clean, organic, green foods and products.

Some Products will have a Facebook page with coupons on their page, for example Alexia Foods has a printable coupon. Other companies of your favorite products may also have coupons you can print from their website.

The stores you shop at often may have coupons. I joined the rewards program & mailing list at Plum Market and every month I get a 10% off coupon emailed to me – this is helpful because I buy my grass-fed beef, natural pork and some other natural meats here. Whole Foods also has a printable coupon section of their site.

Here are some online sources I check regularly:

Organic Deals – Here you will be kept up to date on deals around the web as well as a list of links for additional daily deal sites.

Mambo Sprouts – you can also sign up for a coupon book that is mailed to you regularly.

More Daily Deal Sites I follow. If you wish to use my referal codes for the following sites it would be greatly appreciated:

If anyone else has some money saving tips on the healthy foods we love I would really love to hear them! I am trying my hardest to get into couponing now that savings on ‘specialty’ foods is becoming easier to find.

Sorry, I missed a few days of up dating but I didn’t forget about my challenge.

Day 2 (Friday) – I had eggs and vegetables for breakfast, more salad with nuts for lunch and fruit to snack on. Some guacamole with celery instead of chips. For dinner I met a girlfriend and we ordered sushi, it was delicious! I also ended up picking off a lot of the rice so I could enjoy and taste all the goodies inside the sushi instead of getting full on rice too quickly.

Day 3 (Saturday) – Egg pizza for breakfast (post to come) with some veggies, cheese and leftover pepperoni. For lunch I had a few leftover sushi pieces and then went out to run errands. For dinner we ended up making grilled chicken with Italian marinade (Italian seasoning, some white wine and a little vegetable oil, let set in fridge for 30+ minutes then toss on grill). Along with the chicken we tried some quinoa pasta with Trader Joe’s Vodka Marinara sauce and a spinach salad. I purchased the quinoa pasta – it was tasty, I tried making it but I should have made quinoa flour with red quinoa which I don’t have right now.

Day 4 (Sunday) – Brunch (we ate at almost 11am) Eggs again and some mango chicken sausage from Trader Joe’s and some greek yogurt with cinnamon and honey (yumm). I made Bill some Cinnamon-Vanilla French toast sticks, but I of course didn’t have any – but he said they were awesome, so I can’t wait to make them when I’m not on this challenge. For snacks I had veggies and for dinner leftovers and a kiwi-strawberry smoothie.

Day 5 (Monday) – I had a really light breakfast, I am kind of embarrassed. I just had a leftover mango chicken sausage (they are the size of a brat, not a little breakfast sausage) and coffee. For a snack I had some mini sweet peppers with greek yogurt dill dip. For lunch I had a little bit of leftover quinoa pasta. For my afternoon snack a spinach-mango smoothie. For dinner more leftovers, garlic mashed potatoes and a green smoothie with spinach, mango, apple and coconut water.

Overall, this isn’t too difficult to avoid wheat. Granted, I have not done any major grocery shopping and the real challenge will be over these next few days when we will eat out a few times because of obligations and convenience. But I am sure I’ll find a way to eat some non-wheat foods! I am sorry there has not been too much baking – what a busy weekend/week!

I purchased a julienne peeler from Pampered Chef and I absolutly love this thing. For a good while I wanted a spiral slicer to make zucchini noodles, but those things run upwards of $60 and take up more cupboard/counter space. When I found the Pampered Chef julienne peeler for about $10 I had to try it. It worked wonderfully on zucchini so far, I can’t wait to put it to the test with some carrots and apples! What else do you like to julienne cut and for what?

To prepare the zucchini noodles, simply wash well and peel. I used organic zucchini so I kept the skins on. Then I tossed them in a sautee pan for just a few minutes with a very small amount EVOO and a pinch of salt. I wanted to warm the noodles but keep their crunch. We then topped with our favorite meatballs and sauce, purchased from a local place we love! This meal was started and on the table in under 5 minutes, and with a side of spinach salad we were full all evening.

Sorry for the poor quality photo, I didn’t bother to get out the real camera and just used my phone. I was hungry.

I decided from April 7-April 15 (well, April 6th in the afternoon) I would go wheat-free.

The reasons are quite simple:
1. I like challenges to learn new foods, methods, etc.
2. I have friends who are gluten-free and this would give me a glimpse of what they deal with daily.
3. I’m curious how my body will react, slight weight loss, more energy, better digestion, etc. ???? We shall see!

I will make it through just over a week avoiding wheat. I don’t plant to avoid certain recipes, like muffins, just beacuse the original recipe may contain wheat flour. I will use alternative flours, such as quinoa flour. This will give me a chance to test out some new ingredients.

I also don’t plan to buy any groceries for the next week-ish. Maybe some produce, but absolutely nothing other than eggs, milk, produce if necessary.

I will log daily what was consumed, cooked, baked.

Does anyone have tips? How about some favorite dishes that contain wheat that you would like me to try to make wheat-free?

April 6, started challenge mid-day:

Afternoon snack: tea.
Dinner: Salad with home made dressing, strawberry-banana-mango coconut water-apple smoothie.
Evening treats (In-laws were over for the night): Glass of white wine and stove popped popcorn.

April 7:
Breakfast: Coffee and over easy eggs.
Snack: Munched on leftover popcorn.
Lunch/afternoon snack: Leftover salad of cabbage, onions, corn, kidney beans, chicken, lime and olive oil. A crunchy pickle, yum. Lemon water and tea. All of this spread out over a few hours.
Dinner: Spinach salad with sunflower seeds and a cider vinegar based dressing (recipe to come) on the side, organic zucchini noodles quickly sauteed with olive oil and a pinch of salt with meatballs and tasty sauce from our favorite local place (I’m 99.9% positive he didn’t use bread crumbs of any sort, I forgot to have Bill ask and I didn’t see any evidence of bread crumbs).
Dessert: Peanut Butter-Chocolate-Banana smoothie.

I adapted a blueberry muffin recipe from EcoChildsPlay’s Blog. She uses a vegan, non-dairy, and organic approach. Those are great options, but if those choices are not in your cards, do not fear this recipe. It is easily adaptable and is a great base for muffins.

This recipe has been ‘approved’ by all ages, from little tikes, medium size tikes, and adults (males and females). This is now my go to oatmeal muffin recipe.

Here is the recipe with my slight modifications and notes:

Oatmeal Muffins
Yeilds ~18 (with a regular size muffin pan)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine:

1 cup milk*

1 cup rolled oats

Let the oats/milk sit for 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix:

1 cup flour**

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

To dry mixture, add:

one egg

1/4 cup olive oil

3/4 cup dry sweetener*** (it’s OK to skimp a bit on this measurement if you’d like)

oat/milk mixture

Gently stir in:

1 cup (frozen) blueberries****

Next:

Spoon into (sprayed) muffin cups (with or with out linings) and bake 20-25 minutes. Let cool and remove from pan.

Eat/Serve same day, or store in container at room temperature – they have been moist enough for me that I have not had to store in an air tight container, but I do cover with a towel or gently set the lid on the contaier so they can still “breathe” I have not needed to freeze these yet, but I am sure they would freeze well.

**experiment with flours, unbleached a/p is great or use your favorite- remember different flours have different densities and your measurement might need to be tweaked, I hope to write a guide in the near future for you.

Tuesday – Breakfast for dinner. Eggs, Quinoa Cakes (which were inspired by my friend Lisa’s meal planning on her blog), Chicken Sausage. We’ll get our greens in at lunch! I plan on going to Zumba this evening so it will have to be a quick and easy dinner to make. Update: Quinoa pancakes were fun and good, Trader Joe’s Chicken Sausage (Jalapeno) was tasty, and eggs are always delicious. I made a coconut water-cabbage-kale-mango-pineapple smoothie in the Vita Mix and that was so refreshing! P.S. You don’t taste the cabbage, so the kale and pineapple shined through with a really light and cooling flavor.

Wednesday – Leftovers and salads. I may make this Chickpea Salad with Mango since I have a mango I should use, I do not recall if there are chickpeas in the cupboard, so if not I will just use up the mango in a smoothie. On Wednesday evenings I volunteer at Cooking Matters in Detroit, so Bill is left for eating what he can find in the fridge.

Thursday – St. Patricks Day, maybe I’ll make some Creamy Broccoli Soup with some Corned Beef & Cabbage – still looking for a recipe to use. Zumba again – this might have to be a crock pot dinner. New plan: Grilled Pork Chops and Garlic Mashed Cauliflower. These are foods I already have in my freezer/fridge and want to use up versus buying new ingredients for a meal.

Inspired by my friend Lisa at PlathAdventures I’ll give it my best to plan out my weekly meals with you! Here I will mostly be planning dinners. My breakfasts, lunches and snacks depend on leftovers and what I feel like when I wake up. Here are my typical breakfasts.

Monday: Leftover home made burgers (with grass fed beef) from the weekend with sweet potato, asparagus, and a green salad.

Wednesday: Leftovers and another green salad with left over vegetables and sunflower seeds.

Thursday: Left over chili made by my mother-in-law, it’s nice and spicy.

Friday/Saturday/Sunday: On the road-not sure what the dinner plans with be!

Sorry this week was kind of boring, well, the food was not boring. One thing that amazes me is that we ate healthy but we didn’t spend that much on meals that have lasted us through the whole week, including lunches. The weeks to come will be more exciting and I will do my best to include the costs of each of the meals, because being budget wise is almost as important and being nutritionally conscious!

Note: I’ll add recipes to the burgers and Jambalaya in the very near future.